David Wells, in his barn-burning book The Courage to be Protestant:
“Preaching is not a conversation about some interesting ideas. It is not the moment in which postmoderns hear their own private message in the biblical words, one unique to each one who hears, and then go their own way. No! This is God speaking! He speaks through the stammering lips of the preacher where that preacher’s mind is on the text of Scripture and his heart is in the presence of God. God, as Luther puts it, lives in the preacher’s mouth.
This is the kind of preaching that issues a summons, which nourishes the soul, which draws the congregation into the very presence of God so that no matter what aspect of his character, his truth, his working in this world is in focus, we leave with awe, gratitude, encouragement, and sometimes a rebuke. We have been in the very presence of God! This is what great preaching always does.”
(David Wells; The Courage to be Protestant; p 230)
(HT: Colin Adams)
Filed under: Biblical exposition, Church, Culture, David Wells, Evangelical, God centredness, Preachers, Preaching, The word of God
February 6, 2009 • 6:36 pm
“The majesty of God’s forgiveness is lost entirely when we lose what has to be forgiven. What has to be forgiven is not just what we do but who we are, not just our sinning but our sinfulness, not just our choices but what we have chosen in place of God. . . . When we miss the biblical teaching, we also miss the nature of God’s grace in all its height and depth. In biblical faith it is God’s grace through Christ that does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.”
- David F. Wells, The Courage to Be Protestant (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 2008), 167.
(HT: Of First Importance)
Filed under: Conviction of Sin, David Wells, Discipleship, Evangelical, Forgiveness, God's grace, God's mercy, Jesus Christ, Salvation, Sanctification, The Christian Life, The Cross, The Gospel, The word of God
January 6, 2009 • 11:16 pm
“The mystery of iniquity is at work in the world during this interim time, and it is not always clear how its malignant work is being checked, overridden, or woven into the glorious purposes of God. We need to remember, though, that while Judas betrayed Christ, and woe to him for doing so, it was God’s plan that Christ was thus betrayed. Evil by its very nature opposes the purposes of God, but God, in his sovereignty, can make even this evil serve his purposes.”
- David F. Wells, The Courage to Be Protestant (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 2008), 206.
(HT: Of First Importance)
Filed under: David Wells, Discernment, Doctrine, Evangelical, God's wisdom, Jesus Christ, Sovereignty of God, The problem of evil, The word of God
December 12, 2008 • 7:48 pm
“Christian hope is not about wishing things will get better. It is not about hoping that emptiness will go away, meaning return, and life will be stripped of its uncertainties, aches, and anxieties. Nor does it have anything to do with techniques for improving fallen human life, be those therapeutic, spiritual, or even religious. Hope has to do with the knowledge of ‘the age to come.’ This redemption is already penetrating ‘this age.’ The sin, death, meaninglessness of the one age are being transformed by the righteousness, life, and meaning of the other. What has emptied out life, what has scarred and blackened it, is being displaced by what is rejuvenating and transforming it. More than that, hope is hope because it knows it has become part of a realm, a kingdom, that endures. It knows that evil is doomed, that it will be banished. This kind of hope has left behind it the ship of ‘this age,’ which is sinking. And if this other realm, this place where Christ is even now ruling, did not exist, Christians would be ‘of all people most to be pitied’ (1 Cor. 15:19). Their hope would be groundless and they would have lived out an illusion.”
- David F. Wells, The Courage to be Protestant
(HT: Allsufficientgrace)
Filed under: Christian Hope, David Wells, Discipleship, Doctrine, Evangelical, Heaven, The Bible, The Christian Life
December 4, 2008 • 7:49 pm
David Wells once stated:
“The purpose of worship is clearly to express the greatness of God and not simply to find inward release or, still less, amusement. Worship is theological rather than psychological.”
(HT: Matthew Morizio)
Filed under: Church, David Wells, Discipleship, Doctrine, Evangelical, God's Glory, The Bible, The Christian Life, Truth, Worship
November 28, 2008 • 8:50 pm
David Wells
“Biblical holiness begins with the Holy. But the holy, by its very nature, can be approached only when we come as sinners. He is never accessible to us as consumers. We come in sackcloth and ashes, not as buyers. Indeed, we cannot approach the Holy at all on our own terms. We must see that the Holy has first approached us in Christ and, through him, reconciled us to himself.
The revelation of the Holy would be unbearable were we to see it in any other way than from within Christ. In Christ, what we are seeing is God’s holiness in its action on our sin. Without Christ we would have to bear that judgment in ourselves What we see instead is holiness coming down in grace and, in Christ, going forth against our sin in triumph.”
- David F. Wells, The Courage to be Protestant (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 2008), 240.
(HT: Of First Importance)
Filed under: David Wells, Discipleship, Doctrine, Evangelical, Holiness, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Sanctification, The Christian Life, The Cross, The Gospel, The word of God
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